Monmouth Park hopes to have sports betting by Memorial Day

People looking to wager on sporting events may be able to do just that by the end of the month.
Officials at Monmouth Park Racetrack say that they hope to allow sports betting inside their facility by Memorial Day.
“We think, operationally, we’ll be ready to go on May 28 to start taking wagers,” says CEO Dennis Drazin.
Drazin says that the William Hill Race and Sports Bar is ready to go to allow customers to make the first legal sports bet in New Jersey. The bar was built in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overrule the decades-old ban on sports betting in the Garden State.
"If the governor or the Legislature asks us to slow down, we'll certainly do so but as of [Tuesday morning,] there has been no such request,’ Drazin says.
Drazin says that he does not think that it would be feasible to have everything up and running before May 28.
“We might miss the weekend, but we think, from the technology viewpoint, to really be absolutely certain that everything is smooth, that's probably the timetable,” he says.
Drazin says that Monmouth Park may be hiring over 100 new employees to take in the sports betting wagers.
Gov. Phil Murphy, former Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Ray Lesniak and other legislators who have pushed for legalized sports gambling are expected to place the first, celebratory bets.  Money raised from the event will benefit a local charity.
Drazin says bets at Monmouth Park will be privately regulated until the Legislature in Trenton creates a regulatory scheme for the entire state.